I don't know...?

Hi everyone!  We had a great day today!  We were at Neve early in the morning for classes with Yocheved Engel, Rabbi Kass, Rebbetzin Heller, and Rabbi Katz.

Yocheved is always a pleasure to learn from, and she talked today about freedom.  She said something that was initially hard to hear, that there is actually no such thing as true freedom.  No matter what, you are giving one thing up for the other.  But the way you do have freedom is to choose the thing you find the most valuable and go with that.  Yocheved also used the words "cherus" and "charus."  Cherus is the word for "freedom" and charus is the word for "engraved."  And if we have learned anything at Neve, it is that words with the same root have a deep connection.  Therefore, something that is engraved has the capability to give you great freedom.  My favorite example that she gave was how ballerinas, who look magnificent and free on stage (it seems like they have so much freedom and control over their bodies) become that great because they practice the same thing over and over again.  Many ballerinas practice the same routines and simple moves but they express themselves very differently on stage.  This shows how boundaries and rules can give a person a lot of freedom.

Rabbi Kass discussed the fourth of the ten commandments, which is keeping Shabbat.  We observe Shabbat as an affirmation that G-d created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.  However, when speaking of the creation of the world, we often refer to each day as another layer of the mask that hides G-d from us.  If G-d had stopped at 5 days, there would not be enough of a mask that we would question His existence, but if he kept going for a seventh day, the mask may have been too thick that we would have no reason to believe He exists.  Therefore, when celebrating Shabbat, we don't only realize G-d's creation of the world in which we live, but we also affirm that G-d stopped creating at exaclty the right time to let us ponder His existence, and therefore have free will.

Rebbetzin Heller spoke of the possibility of prophecy and the approaches that we might have of believing that prophecy in the times of our forefathers was true.  She said we can learn about prophecy from sources in the Torah.  Many prophecies were incredibly specific, giving detailed events and using numbers (as in "this will occur for 70 years).  We were able to see that anyone who doubted the truth of their prophecy would be general enough that their prophecy would be able to come true no matter what really happened.  But even the most specific prophecies came true, they could not have been random guesses.  Another way to approach this idea, and really any idea whether religious or not, is just to have an open mind.  Rebbetzin Heller discussed how closed mindedness leads to a lack of information and a lack of growth.  The point is to keep an open mind even if it may seem scary or new.

Lastly, we had the ever popular Rabbi Katz, who talked about interpreting texts.  He gave us a line from Pirkei Avot (ethics of our fathers).  More importantly than reading through and discussing the text he gave, was discussing how to interpret texts.  Judaism encourages asking TONS of questions, in fact, if someone thinks they understand something without asking questions, it means they don't truly understand it.  Rabbi Katz used the metaphor of approaching things as if they are a mirror or a window.  If you approach a new subject as a mirror, you can only see what you are used to seeing and there is very little growth.  But if you approach a new topic as a window, you are open to everything and anything without limiting yourself.  In addition, he discussed how it is better to be able to say "I don't know" and then try to understand questions before yo understand their answers.  

After class we went to Meah Shearim to do some shopping and were luckily pretty successful!  With only a few days left on our trip... pausing to wipe away my tears... we needed to get some gifts!  Then we went to the shuk to buy ingredients for our banquet dinner tomorrow night...more tears.  Our jaws were dropping at the colors and textures that are so lively in the shuk!  They have the reddest strawberries, orangest oranges, and best smelling breads and pastries you can imagine!  Let alone tons of nuts, dried fruit, olives, fish, and even clothing and jewelry.  We then dropped off some things at the apartment and went out to Ben Yehuda street to get some yummy falafel, and then headed off to all girls karaoke!  We had a blast singing together along with other women and just letting loose for a while!  Of course we had a blast singing and dancing!  Now is time for some packing and hopefully an early night!  Laila Tov!

Lots of love, 

Ashley

The Scenic Route

The Scenic route.....

Sunday January 16, 2011

Yay for late mornings!!  After a wonderful Shabbos and Motzei Shabbos in town we were able to sleep a little later this morning before we rounded up the troops to go to school!  Today we tried out different seminaries and sat in on classes to get a feel for the different styles and structures of learning.  I (Sydnee), Jenna Bish, Ashley, and Eleanor tried on She'arim, and the lone, the brave, Jenna Baz, attended Midreshet Rachel.  Both schools are more text based than Neve, and we spent the morning learning Chumash (the 5 books of Moses) and Halacha, reading and translating Torah with tutors, and learning about HOW to learn Torah and understand the accompanying commentaries.  WE were directly studying Torah!  How cool is THAT?!

Although the change of pace of the morning classes was a great experience, it was wonderful to get the whole gang back together again in the Maidel Mobile for some afternoon adventure!  It was no hang gliding on a Dorito, but we DID spend the afternoon driving around, from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, to Aroma, and then Ben Yehuda Street.  The original plan was to go to Zichron Yaakov, see the botanical gardens, and walk around town.  We figured we would chance the rain to go see it, but as we were driving, and it started POURING, we had to re-evaluate.  So, we turned the van around, made a necessary pit stop at Aroma - the sustenance of our trip - then headed back toYerushalyim.  Despite the fruitless driving and unwarranted stress Bayla had to put up with, it turned out that we had some great car conversations.  (BY THE WAY... MAMASH SHOUT OUT TO BAYLA FOR HER AMAZING DRIVING AND PARALLEL PARKING, DESPITE CRAZY ISRAELI DRIVERS AND A FRUSTRATING AS EVER GPS!!)

Don't worry, after approximately 4 hours of "touring" and "seeing the sights" we got a good 20 minutes of shopping in in town, then we went to Shayan, and amazing Asian restaurant, for dinner.  We had a lovely, really nice meal all together (plus really good food), and as we sat at the giant round table, staring into each others' eyes, and passing the water on the broken lazy susan, we were able to appreciate how AMAZING everyone is on this trip!! (For real, these 6 women here are INCREDIBLE!! Mamash the BEST!!)

Once we had eaten enough that we were virtually immobile,we went back to our apartment, where a Kallah teacher, Esti Hamilton, was coming over to teach a class about the Mikveh and family purity laws.  We sat at the kitchen table, learning about the purpose of the Mikveh and the Halacha of family purity.   An amazing discussion was capped off with a quick drive to a beautiful Mikveh in Na'achlaot.  Esti gave us a tour and an explanation of the process of going to the Mikveh, then were had the pleasure of continuing our class in the gorgeous waiting room. 

We came home to end another day with hours of talking and giggling and silly You Tube videos and eating.  It's so comfortable here, and it's a lovely feeling to be at home in Israel with such inspiring women.  But we miss you all terribly, and hope that you can live vicariously through us as we are living the dream!!

Laila Tov, and talk to you tomorrow!!

Shalom from the Holy Land :)

Old Family & New Friends (Friday and Shabbos)

You mothers might not believe this but your daughters actually chose to wake up Friday at 4:30 in the morning!  After consuming many cups of coffee we piled into a van to take us to two of Israel's holiest places-Kever Rachel (the burial site of Rachel our Mother) and the Maarat HaMachpalah (the burial site of the matriarchs and patriarchs).  Rachel's tomb has been a place where Jewish people throughout the generations have stopped to pray and pour out their hearts; from the Jews who were leaving the land of Israel on their way to exile to a group of girls from UMD.  Then on to celebrate a new member joining the tribe!  We were lucky enough to visit the Maaras Hamachpalah on the morning of a brit milah (circumcision) and we joined the family in singing and dancing.  As soon as we got back home we all took a nap so we would be able to fully enjoy Shabbos...Love from Bayla and now here is Jenna!

Greetings from Eretz Yisrael!
 

We just arrived back at the apartment from an incredible Shabbaton in Ramat Bet Shemesh. I, Jenna Bazelon, and my dear friend Sydnee Chavis, spent a FANTASTIC Shabbat with the Boxer family. We could not have asked for a better host family, we really left feeling like part of the family. Shout out to...Hadas (you're amazing), Yaakov (also amazing), Kahatya, Rina, Avraham Yosef, Eliyahu, Chana, Elisheva...WE LOVE YOU GUYS!! I can't speak to the amazingness of the other host families but I've only heard awesome things. Also shout out to Chani Fulda and her family (i.e. adorable son, Avi) for hosting our Oneg Shabbos, the incredibly welcoming Ross and Adam families, and all the rest of the great host families. You all made our Shabbaton experience unforgettable.
Our Shabbaton experience included: food. Oh, and some great Torah portion talk, life story sharing, and of course, priceless time with beautiful children.

On a personal note:
I just have to tell all our loyal minions followers that I am having the most incredible adventure here in Israel. As cliche as it sounds, it really has been a life-changing journey of self-discovery and bonding with amazing women that I otherwise would probably not have connected with, BARUCH HASHEM. We have endless meaningful conversations about life, and I couldn't have asked for a better group to share this experience with. I really feel that I am meant to be here.

Love, Jenna Bazelon

Traveling to our past...

Another day has passed in the holy land of Israel. Of course we had amazing classes with Rabbi Marcus, Rabbi Greenfield, and Rabbi Katz. We moved on to the letter Bet, which is the letter of connection, relationship, and "twoness." Connections and relationships can either be positive or negative. A majority of "twoness" in the Torah is disconnected because we need to overcome those struggles and challenges to connect back to G-d. Another interesting fact about the Torah is that G-d changed systems when explaining the creation of the universe. He started out with using day one and then switched to using second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth for the rest of the days. Day one was the only day where the mask of G-d's oneness was so thin that it was still directly accessible. After day one, the mask got thicker since He created the ability for us to disconnect to Him. After being inspired by Rabbi Marcus, we had the pleasure of learning from a new Rabbi. Rabbi Green field focused on the purpose of life and how it is for G-d to have a relationship to us rather than us to have a relationship with Him. This relationship is fostered by the revelation, organization, and structure of the universe. And then last, but not least, was Rabbi Katz. We were going to go over Pirkei Avos (the ethics of our forefathers), but got a little sidetracked. The chapters of Pirkei Avos involve the ultimate goal of Jewish self-development, which is that your reflex itself is an extension of what is good in the best possible way. It provides no embarrassment or discomfort to the person on the receiving end and should be given with sensitivity. Once we filled our brains with some knowledge, we figured it was time to fill our stomachs with food.

After eating some delicious pasta salad Bayla made for us, we headed to Yad Vashem. I had not been to a Holocaust museum or memorial in a long time, so I was very excited to take a tour. Even though the tour was rushed, I felt immense feelings that I have never dealt with before. I had never looked at the victims of the Holocaust as people who had lives like we have before. That is mostly because I did not know how my own Pop lived before the Holocaust began. Also, there was a point in the tour where we were standing on part of the road from the Warsaw Ghetto, where my Pop lived before he was sent to Auschwitz. If they were able to pass down Judaism and keep it alive during those times, there is no reason why we should not be doing that today.

Of course the last couple events we had involved food. We went to a lovely woman's house to bake some challah. Six braided challah! It was not that difficult and they all turned out delicious. This was before dinner though. Bayla made us tofu stir fry before we all passed out. It has been a long couple of days, but at least Shabbos starts tomorrow!

Love and miss all of you!
<3 Jenna Bishop

You have something on your face....

Wednesday 12 January, 2011

    Shalom again from the Holiest of Holy apartments- 13 Hovevei Zion!  It's been another "grueling" day here!  Life is sure tough in Israel!  After sleeping later than usual, we schlepped ourselves out of bed and hit the road for a day at the Dead Sea!  Following a "slight" mishap with 'Gerry,' our "trusty" GPS, who took us an hour out of the way, we were able to navigate ourselves back to "Route 1" then to the Dead Sea!  When we arrived at the Ein Gedi Spa we wasted not time, and Ashley, Sydnee, and the Jenna's took to pampering ourselves in mineral rich, luxurious skin clarifying mud. We made sure we were each coated head to toe in the goop then rinsed off in a natural sulfur shower, leaving our skin silky smooth!  Let me tell you, we all look good covered in mud!
   The next step in the treatment process was a dip in the Dead Sea.  It takes a trolley ride then a short hike to actually make it to the sea, which is quickly disappearing, but once we made it to the salt coated, mineral laden beach we were thrilled!  We floated and marveled in the vacant water where it is actually physically difficult to fight the dense water to stand up.  It is SO COOL!  Despite the slimy feeling of the water itself, it was so comforting to know that there is nothing creepy in the water to bother you at all (except of course each other <3).

So, by the time we finished dolling ourselves up in natural Dead Sea schmutz we were pretty tired, so we woke up Bayla and Eleanor from their amazingly relaxing Dead Sea naps, hugged and grabbed Kayla, and set back for Jerusalem.  Luckily we found a gas station before we had to spend the night camped out in Ein Gedi, and we made it back to Jerusalem, past the Camels and Bedouins, without a hitch. 
  To top off YET ANOTHER amazing day we met up with a whole group-o-Terps who are all in Israel learning!  We met up at Rabbi Lynn's apartment for a Bagel dinner and major schmooze session.  It was so wonderful to see all our buds from the UMD, which is now buried in snow.  We were able to catch up, but also discuss what we're learning and how we want to use it.  It was also amazing to see them, because it really made us recognize that we can continue our growth at school and at home. 
   Israel is still wonderful!! We miss you and wish you were ALL HERE WITH US!!  Until tomorrow night, Laila/ Yom Tov, and giant hugs and kisses from all of us in the "Maidel Mansion."

Shalom, Ya'll!

Love, Sydnee

Tel Aviv Adventures...

Tuesday 11 January, 2011

Bayla, Jenna Bazelon, and Sydnee were still not 100% this morning so Jenna Bishop, Eleanor, and Ashley (the few…the proud…the healthy) cabbed it to Neve. After a full morning of class, we hopped into the maidel mobile and gunned it for Tel-Aviv, fueled by some yummy pita pizza á la the Neve cafeteria.

In Tel-Aviv, we wandered the Nachalat Binyomin artists market for a few hours, checking out hand-made jewelry and Judaica. With all our wallets a little lighter, we took cabs to a delicious restaurant called Primavera. Unfortunately, it was both delicious and closed, so we walked down the street to Prima Grill. Fortunately, the detour led us along the boardwalk, and we enjoyed the sight of a beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean.

After dinner, we drove to nearby Holon for Dialogue in the Dark. We were led on an indoor tour of a forest, a boat, a cabin, and a concert…all in rooms completely devoid of light. Our guide, like all guides at the Blind Museum, was visually impaired, and shared some of her amazing life with us during our round table discussion (at least, I think the table was round!)

We’re all worn out, so we trooped back to Jerusalem and made a quick stop off at the grocery store for some essentials before hurrying home to hit the hay. Got to rest up…dead sea tomorrow!

A Gutte Noch (good night!)

Chava Kayla (the madricha)

classes, shopping, karyoke

hello all,

   today, was yet another beautiful and blessed day in the holy land of Jerusalem! we are happy to inform that Jenna Bazelon is feeling much better but has decided to spend the day to further rest and fully recover! 

we began bright and early at neve with the enthusiastic, well educated Yocheved Angler, who spoke about tznius (selective revealing of our external selves) and how it ties into self-esteem. through deep discussion, we tried to see what tools people can use to get past the search for external approval and general approval from others. as a class, we came to the conclusion that when one internally knows themselves, the need for external approval diminishes. it is very difficult for a person to live a life of true connection if all one work towards is money, power, success and beauty.  we learned the deeper reasoning of dressing modestly and saw how this can help us with our connection to our environment and the vital appreciation for ourselves.

   next, we were lucky to be taught by Rabbi Kass, who continued to teach about our written texts. he very interestingly pointed out that each of our 613 mitzvot can fall into the categories of our ten commandments. we began talking about the first of the ten commandments, which is believe in Hashem. the conversation got very complex as the question was asked.. "how can something command us to believe."

    Rebbetzin heller introduced the topic of nature and the fact that nothing makes itself and also explained the difference between everything that exists in nature and human beings. we learned that everything in nature, other than human beings, cannot be measured in good or evil. for instance, an animal cannot be evil for killing another because that is part of its animal instincts and the animal knows no better. we, humans, have been blessed with the ability to reason, to speak and to make moral choices.

    our last class of the day, my personal favorite (and that's really great because each class is seriously mamash AMAzING), was with Rabbi Katz who spoke to our hearts. His topic today was Baseless hatred (sinat chinam). As much as it is a misfortune, each person at one point dislikes another person and although this person thinks it is justified, the reason for disliking a person is usually not a valid reason at all. An exercise that we have been working on in class is finding the positive traits in our fellow neighbors and not focusing on the negative. this seems easy but it is a process if we would like for this to occur naturally. love is a trained and conditioned emotion that is naturally within our souls.

    after our fulfilling day of learning, our amazing Madricha Kayla took 3 of us girls to meah shaarim, the most observant neighborhood in Jerusalem. Sadly, Sydnee, Jenna and Bayla were at the apartment not feeling 100 percent but i am excited and confident G-d willing that tomorrow on our blog we can inform everyone of the full recovery of all members of our group. the four of us spent about two hours in a book store where we each came out with valuable purchases :) (no worries parents not valuable as in money) 

     for dinner, Bayla took us to a beautiful and delicious restaurant in the city for yummy soup and salad. 

     After dinner Kayla, Ashley Jenna Bishop and I went to an all girls Karaoke club! it was so much fun but we missed out missing members! hopefully next week we can go as a full group! i hope all is well! greeting from the holy land! 

-Eleanor Ayala Cohen   

Kotel Tunnels

Hello!  Today was another exciting day!  Hard to believe, I know.  Unfortunately, Jenna Bazelon had the stomach flu today so she couldn't join us.  We are hoping she gets better soon!  We started off at Neve with classes from Rabbi Marcus.  He was starting the Hebrew alphabet over with the letter Aleph.  Aleph represents G-d and oneness, and is therefore the only letter in biblical language to be soundless.  Many words in the Hebrew alphabet have meanings that have to do with each individual meaning of the letters that make up the word.  For example, the word "Adam" means man, but if you take away the Aleph, it just spells "Dam", which means "blood."  You can tell that we are just physical beings without our spiritual aspect, the part that G-d puts in us.

Next we had a class from Mrs. Levitan, who is an expert on relationships.  I especially loved this class because she sort of touched on one of my personal mantras, "We choose the way we react to the tings we cannot change."  When we wake up, we can choose to be in a good mood or a bad mood.  Similarly, we have to choose to love people that we are in a relationship with, including ourselves.  She also talked about how when you get married, you should not count on your spouse to change, or you may be disappointed (I'm sure we have heard all that before, but it's still hard to put into practice). 

Our next class was with Rebbetzin Heller, who talked to us about the oral and written Torah, and how it all began.  I was really useful to get a background in the five books of Moshe, and then the oral Torah, which is made up of the Mishneh, Gemarah, Midrash, and Zohar.  These also correlate to the levels of the Torah, from most shallow and simple to most deep and kabbalistic.

Lastly, we had the very sweet Rabbi Liff, who shared about how Jews are viewed both individually and as a whole. He focused on us as individuals.  One quote we all liked was (see if you can follow), "If I am I because you are you, and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you.  But if I am I because I am I and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you."  Phew, a lot of words, but it has a powerful meaning.  We need to be ourselves as we are, without having to compare to others, and then we are our true selves.  We also discussed how easy it is to be influenced negatively (media and such) and therefore develop a negative self image. 

After class, we headed to the old city and Ben Yehuda to do some shopping before we did the tunnel tours.  It was nice to spend some time relaxing and shopping there.  We then went to the Kotel to meet the big Meor group for the tunnel tours.  The Western wall that we all know is actually only a fragment of the wall.  But a city was built over the remaining portion and foundation of the rest of the wall surrounding the Bait Hamigdash.  There are tunnels that were dug out going along the rest of the Western wall, and we got to walk along them!  There is even one point in the tour where you are standing by the wall directly across from the Holy of Holies.  This means we were standing at the holiest place in the world, mamish.  Amazing!  We were also shown some really cool models of the Bait Hamigdash when it was first built, built the second time, and what it looks like today.  It was a really touching experience.

After that we came back to the apartment and had some dinner and hung out. We took the free night to relax because we have a busy day tomorrow, if you can believe it.  So that's about all for now!  We miss you all, but we are looking forward to the next ten days here!

Lots of love,
Ashley

Shabbos in Har Nof!

Shalom, folks! We just got back from a lovely Shabbos weekend in Har Nof. Before leaving for Shabbos, we had a walking tour around the shuk (market) by the famous Basha. Throughout this tour we got to see different courtyards and neighborhoods from the turn of the century. You could picture how people used to live in those times and what kinds of families lived there. Some of the courtyards we visited were Even Yisroel and Ohel Moshe. The tour ended at the shuk and we were given time to walk around and shop for food. After finding a delicious falafel stand and buying some treats from the shuk, we went back to the apartment for a quick shluff before leaving for Har Nof.

It was finally Shabbos! Candle lighting began around 4, right when it started to rain, at Datei Leumei Synagogue. Before Kabbalat Shabbat we listened to Rabbi Gershenfeld (the director of MEOR) talk to us about the first commandment, which involves eating from every tree in the Garden of Eden. The class gave us meaning to eating and drinking on Shabbos. Of course Kabbalat Shabbat was filled with tons of beautiful women praying, singing, and dancing. That was just the beginning of an amazing Shabbos to come. We were given the pleasure and opportunity to spend the first meal at the original Rabbi Burnham's house. Putting faces and names to Rabbi Ozzie's family after hearing so many stories about them was indescribable. Everyone adds something special to the family. After being blown away by the Burnham family, we made our way back to Datei Leumei Synagogue for Oneg with MEOR 2, PERI, some young men from Machon Yaakov (a yeshiva), and some young women from Neve Yerushaliyim (the seminary we attend). Even though our little group was scattered around the room, we were still able to entertain each other by making funny faces. After l'chaims (toasts to life) and more eating, we went back to our host families for a long night of sleep.

Our group was split up for the second meal on Saturday and got back together for the third meal. The third meal was located at Rabbi Gershenfeld's daughter's (Michal Levy) home. Her two youngest children were quite enjoyable to play with before, during, and after the meal. Once her husband and two other children came home, we started havdallah. By the time we finished everyone was tired and ready to go back to the apartment for some noshing and sleep. Even though Shabbos can take a lot out of us (from major shmoozing and eating), we cannot wait for next Shabbos!

Miss and love all of you!
<3 Jenna Bishop

A Different view of Jerusalem

Another LONG but fruitful and incredible day in Israel (Baruch Hashem!).  There's a beautiful consistency and routine to our weekday mornings- after staying up late schmoozing and talking, we wake up begrudgingly early only to be truly woken up and uplifted by our classes at Neve!  We learned about the significance, depth, and meaning of Hebrew Torah grammar, and then about how the actual, physical Torah as we now know it came to be from Oral Law and the commandments given to Moses.  Classes concluded with a wonderfully insightful and deep discussion of love and friendship, and what it means to truly love another, and why all people, especially Jews, should love each other.

Directly from class we headed to the mountains for horseback riding!  Despite a few... well... restless horses we had a beautiful and "relaxing" stroll through the hills of Jerusalem which was the perfect opportunity to introspect and absorb what we have been learning (well for me at least).  Jerusalem looks even more beautiful from atop a horse! I'm thrilled to say we all made it through the whole experience, although maybe a little smelly of horse, and less two sandwiches eaten by the dogs.

It's becoming somewhat clear to me now that no day is complete without shopping - so naturally we headed to town for a quick trip.  We shopped for some skirts and shirts, and Aroma coffee of course, strolling Ben Yehuda street like real Israelis! :)

Shopping was a success!!  Exhausted, we came home to our apartment to veg and eat LEFTOVERS we cooked from last night, which were still delicious.  It was nice to relax for a bit, because at 8:30 we had another class with the other Meor trip.  Rabbi Wenglin gave an amazing class about purpose and passion in life - Find something you're willing to die for, then live for it.  Needless to say, he is an amazing person.

We're back at the apartment tonight, after a full day and night of adventure and learning.  We can always count on Bayla (and not our evil GPS Gerry) to get us home safely so we can wake up tomorrow morning for another incredible, inspiring day!

Lila Tov!  Goodnight from Jerusalem!

Love Sydnee, Bayla, Jenna, Jenna, Ashley, Eleanor, Kayla <3

A Real Expedition

To our dearest Loved Ones,
Holler from the homeland! Unfortunately for all of you, I'm following Ashley's incredibly articulate and detailed blog post at 1 AM, when we woke up at 7 and will be waking up at 7 again (yay!!!). Anyways, today was awesome.

The first awesome part of the day was waking up at 7. The second awesome part was going to school. The third (legitimately) awesome part was classes! Rabbi Marcus continued speaking of the Hebrew letter Hay, emphasizing on how the role of women in society has changed drastically since the 1950's, with the Women's Liberation Movement in the 60's.

Next, Rabbi Kass spoke of the commandment that says "love thy neighbor as you love yourself." What it really means is that you should "generate love" for your neighbor, in that giving to your neighbor will transitively invest a piece of you unto her, and because you love yourself, when you give a piece of yourself to someone, you grow love for them. Deep, right? Right!

As if that weren't enough brain food, next we learned from Rabbi Liff about Tzedakah, commonly translated as "charity", but the root of the Hebrew word actually means "justice". G-d created an unjust world so that we can make it just. Rabbi Liff also spoke of the different levels of giving, the highest in which you give so that the receiver doesn't need to be given anything again (i.e. teaching someone a trade, giving him a job, etc). Beautiful concepts.

Drained? So were we. But don't you dare think our brains were full because we haven't even gotten to Rebbetzin Heller yet. She spoke of Judaism's views on mending a marriage, divorce, and child custody. Very interesting!

After classes we had a delicious pasta/tuna salad lunch (courtesy of the fabulous Bayla Burnham) and headed to the Kotel. We met up with our favorite tour guide, Basha. She took us on an incredible archaeological tour of the Second Temple. We traveled through time to the beginning of Jewish history, walking on the very same steps that Rabbi Akiva, King Herod, and others once walked on. We made our way through the remains of the homes of the Byzantines, with our tour guide relaying amazingly detailed explanations of every archaeological find in the past century. IT WAS SO COOL!!!!

Upon stepping back through the time portal to 2010, we stopped by the market to grab some groceries and returned to our five star apartment where we were greeted by a great chef named Gabi. We turned on some Jewish jams and prepared an incredible feast of vegetable dishes, couscous salad, stuffed peppers, savory chicken, and of course, hummus and pita. Following our dinner we spoiled our taste buds with a mouth-watering dessert of date pastries made by our very own talented chef, Sydnee Chavis.

After dinner, we played the Love Game in which you go around and say something you love about every person. Let's just say, tears of joy and immense appreciation were shed. All in all, our day ranked 11/10. Shalom!

Caesaria and Scientific Torah

Hello parents, families, and friends!  Today was a very exciting, jam-packed day in Israel!  We started off the day with classes at Neve Yerushalayim at 8:30 am.  We had four classes, which were each about an hour each.  The most interesting part about Neve for me, is that all the classes are very different depending on the different teacher and subject matter, but it is all extremely relevant to our lives.  

Our first class was taught by Rabbi Marcus, who actually spent an hour talking about the Hebrew letter Hay.  And the amazing thing is, it was not even a little bit boring.  Each letter in the Hebrew language has so much meaning behind it that our hour class was actually just an "introduction."  Because we are sort of sitting in on the Mechina program, the students had already been through the first few letters of the alphabet.  A few quick and interesting things I can report about the letter Hay is that it is actually made up of a Dalet and a Yud.  The Dalet stands for the physicality of the world, and the Yud stands for the spirituality of the world.  The letter Hay represents that every physical thing has an internal spirituality.  Our teacher also related this to masculinity and femininity.  The hebrew word for male and female have the same root, but the word for female has the letter Hay on the end.  This shows how women are able to take something physical and bring it to a higher spiritual level.  For example, a male might see everything as being outside of himself, and it is a women's job to take things from the outside world and find meaning in it, something women do naturally.

Our second class was from Rebbetzin Heller, who talked about marriage and the relationship between a man and woman.  This specific class was on how children are raised by two parents coming from very different backgrounds.  The parents need to keep the values they want to teach their children always present, while the consistency with what children do in the home is important, but not quite as important as the values they should be taught.  She also talked about how a marriage is about helping your spouse and children grow.  Basically, it is a very important to help others grow and experience growth in yourself when you are in a loving and committed relationship.

Our third class was from Rabbi Kass, who talked a little bit about democracy and Torah nation.  I’m not so good with government and politics, but the other students had visited the Knesset the day before and were interested in the topic.  Rabbi Kass was saying that he believes a democracy is the “least bad” way to run a country, however it has it’s drawbacks, as does any other form of government.  According to the Torah, the Torah nation (when the Messiah comes) will actually be a monarchy with a supreme court, made up of Torah scholars.  So the “King” will be somewhat limited in decisions based on the most scholarly people in the nation.  I had never talked about anything like this before, so it was interesting to me, although a bit hard to understand.

Lastly, we had Rabbi Leff, who is actually the head of the Mechina program at Neve.  His class was on how every action in the world has good or bad potential.  Actions are unbiased, but it is the associations with these actions that are considered good or bad.  It was interesting to me because I remember Bayla telling me a few times before the concept of how everything that has great potential for good also has great potential for evil.  Some of his examples included killing someone else.  According to the torah, it is okay to kill someone in self-defense.  If someone is going to kill you, you should instead kill them.  In addition, if a fetus is putting a mother in danger, the fetus should be aborted instead of the mother being harmed.  This led to a very interesting conversation that I will not go into right now!  Another example was giving charity, usually perceived as a good thing to do.  However, the act of giving charity can be associated with bad things, like giving charity to a know terrorist organization, obviously not so good.

After Neve classes, we hurried off the Ceasaria, which was about an hour away.  We went to the ruins that are amazingly preserved there from the early Roman era.  We watched a video about the land and how it changed over the years, and then we went and saw the ruins.  It was amazing how even the intricate tiling in the ancient bathhouse was still there from thousands of years ago.  Walking around the ruins was an amazing experience, especially because it was all on the water, so the view was beautiful.  It was a bit rainy but that did not stop us!  We of course did some shopping in the area.  There was a really cool jewelry shop and also a driedel store in the area that were fun to look in.  We eventually left and headed back to Jerusalem for dinner, where we got soup and salad.  Perfect for the cold day.  Then some of us got coffee from Aroma (where they also give you a little chocolate with your coffee, what could be better?). 

The last activity was an amazing class given by Gerald Schroeder, who is an incredibly brilliant scientist and physicist (he got his BS, MS, and PHD from MIT).  Anyone that knows me for about five minutes knows that I’m not the biggest fan of math or physics, but this subject, while esoteric, was incredibly interesting (if you could follow along!).  He tried to explain to us how science actually works along side the genesis of life according to the torah.  I can’t go into too much detail on account of I actually could not understand much of what he was saying.  But It related to the fact that it is scientifically known that the world is billions of years old, however the Jewish year is only 5771 (which started at Adam and Eve).  The only thing that came before Adam and Eve were the six days of creation, meaning the world should really only be 5771 years old plus six days.  So Mr. Schroeder attempted to explain to us how time and space are related in a way that scientifically explains how each of those six days was actually billions of years.  The greatest torah scholars have concluded that those six days of creation were actually 24 hours each, just like out workdays.  However, it is scientifically known that space is related to time, therefore the hours become longer the faster something is moving.  In addition, when the big bang occurred, something was created from nothing.  Time and space have actually been physically expanding since the big bang occurred.  The first 24 hours of the world really felt like 24 hours, but they were actually billions of years long according to our concept of 24 hours.  He ended with saying that everyone knows that energy is neither created or destroyed (so take away the fact that something had to create the big bang in the first place) and focus on the fact that all the energy released from the big bang (literally just light) actually became living breathing, feeling, emotional human beings.  Amazing right?  Now, if you did not understand a single thing in this last paragraph, don’t worry.  You can check out one of Mr. Schroeder’s four published books, Genesis and the Big Bang, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth, God According to God: A Physicist Proves We've Been Wrong About God All Along.

So here we are at the end of a long day.  Chocolate, popcorn, my amazing girls, and some good music are the perfect things for blog writing.  Hope you all enjoyed reading and look forward to another post tomorrow!  

Lots of love,

Ashley

Getting into the swing of things

Today was our first day of classes at Neve!  After a relatively early start (though later than usual) we headed to the highest point in Jerusalem, Har Nof, to begin our learning.  We had three classes; a class about the two worlds that we all coexist in- the world of connection and the world of disconnection, a class about the righteous characteristics of our ancestral matriarchs that exist within us, and a class about love.  As if the subject matter wasn't interesting enough to pique our Jewish interest, the teachers were unbelievable!  It's incredible how much insight and passion the teachers express through their stories and conversations.


It's amazing how in Israel one wonderful, amazing experience always follows another.  Of course, we needed some sustenance following such a stimulating morning, so we went for our fourth Israeli frozen yogurt expedition of the trip, quite necessary.  It was a first course to our lunch of Bayla-made salad in our AMAZING apartment!  All the stimulation and excitement of the past four days our delicious lunch had to be followed up by a quick schluff (nap), following which we headed out in our Maidel Mobile to volunteer!

We spent the afternoon into the evening making clay sculptures with victims of terror attacks.  Although the amazing women there didn't speak much English, the organization, One Family Fund, and the spirit of the clients was an inspiring atmosphere and we were all impacted by the gravity of these peoples' experiences.
We created different sculptures for the center, Hamsas and a vase, a box, and plaques, and it was a wonderful experience.

It's physically impossible to go any extended period of time without eating of involving food in our itinerary, so we went for pizza on the main street of Har Nof.  The pizza was delish, even though finding a parking space anywhere in Jerusalem is virtually impossible (thank goodness we have an amazing driver in Bayla).

To cap off an incredibly full but wonderful day we went to an apartment for a Q&A panel about women and Judaism and to hear the story of an religious recording artist, Moran Sabbah, who turned down a recording contract with Sony to move to Israel!

We are continuing to have an amazing time and Israel, and as we delve into our learning, we are all thrilled to be exploring Judaism together!  We love you and miss you all!

http://www.moransabbah.com/Shalom for now! <3 Sydnee :)

We are here!!!!

After spending an amazing Shabbos and Sunday in northern Israel we are so happy to be home in our beautiful apartment!  We finally found the town of Chispin where we spent Shabbos after we realized that the  GPS spelled the town Chispglizk.  It was great to spend time with Rabbi Ozzie and the Meor 2 group singing Kabbalat Shabbat in the dark.  Saturday night we traveled to Tiberias and played drums and danced to Israeli music on a boat on lake Kinneret.  After a class on Sunday morning we went to two unique wineries-the Adir wineries where we tasted fantastic goat cheese and goat cheese frozen yogurt and of course the wine:-)  Then we drove across the road to the Rimon winery where every wine was made from 5 lb pomegranates!

For the sole purpose of supporting the Israeli economy we bought stunning jewelry and art work in the mystical city of Zfat (don't worry parents we are just being giving people).  On to dinner in Jerusalem and then home and the best part of the day, staying up with twizzlers and tissues, talking and sharing.   

As a note to parents you all have the most beautiful, amazing daughters and I can't thank you enough for sharing them with me for three weeks! Finally a BIG thank you to the Levin family for allowing us to stay in their gorgeous apartment.